Maria Huppert interview, 18 September 2021

Abstract

Maria Huppert was born in Transylvania in 1942 but moved to Germany at a young age where she worked in farms until adolescence when her family was sponsored to immigrate to the United States. When Huppert arrived in the country she was suffering from mumps and had to be quarantined in a hospital. She did not speak English at the time. She and her family were active in the Lutheran Church. During her time in American schools as a child, she experienced verbal harassment from her peers due to her status as a displaced person. She was able to best connect with people in the United States by keeping in touch with her ancestry and joining communities that had fellow ethnic Germans.

Interviewee

Huppert, Maria (interviewee)

Interviewer

Parcham, Deborah (interviewer)

Project

Cleveland German-American Oral History Project

Date

9-18-2021

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

55 minutes

Recommended Citation

"Maria Huppert interview, 18 September 2021" (2021). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 195018.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1246

Related Resources

Cleveland German-American Oral History Project @ Cleveland Voices

Transcript

Deborah Parcham [00:00:00] Okay. Starting off. Can you tell me your full name and your date of birth?

Maria Huppert [00:00:07] My full name is– Oh, do you want my maiden name, too?

Deborah Parcham [00:00:12] If you, if you want to, yeah, go ahead.

Maria Huppert [00:00:15] Okay. It's Maria Rusnner, R U S S N E R, Huppert, H U P P E R T.

Deborah Parcham [00:00:29] Okay. Thank you. Um, and what was your date of birth?

Maria Huppert [00:00:35] ... 1942.

Deborah Parcham [00:00:38] Thank you. So, honestly, feel free to talk about whatever you want to talk about in terms of like–

Maria Huppert [00:00:51] Well, I'm not sure exactly what you would like to know. Barbara had just kind of– Didn't say too much when she told me about this. So what is it you want to know?

Deborah Parcham [00:01:07] Can you tell me about your hometown?

Maria Huppert [00:01:11] Well, I can't tell you too much because I was a toddler when we left, but I was born in Birk, B I R K. At the time it was what was known as Transylvania, which was part of Romania, and it was an ethnic German community. Actually the country itself was ethnic German.

Deborah Parcham [00:01:45] You said you left when you were a toddler, but do you have any childhood memories of what it was like there?

Maria Huppert [00:01:52] Mmm, no. I was two years old. We left during the war when the Russian front moved. That's when most of us left the country for Germany or Austria. Some people went to Austria. That was all the German ethnic population that left as well because the Russian front was moving east across all those countries. I, you know, whatever I remember is only what my parents talked about. And then we were in Germany till I was ten years old. And then we immigrated in 1952. We immigrated to the States, and I've been here ever since.

Deborah Parcham [00:02:51] What was your time in Germany like?

Maria Huppert [00:02:56] Well, we lived in a very small town. A number of immigrants, ethnic immigrants, lived there. I mean, it was– It was a very stressful time. You know, it was right after the war. And there was some, you know, the country was rebuilding. We– What you do as a child. I mean, we went to school. We played, what kids do. I don't know what else I can tell you. My parents, my dad worked in construction for a while, and then he worked at a U.S. Army base. Before we came, before we immigrated, and there were a number of our relatives. We lived in the same area. Nothing exciting. I mean, it was a small town. It was a little difficult for the ethnic German people because, you know, they were obviously hadn't been able to take much with them. So we were all kind of on the poor side. But then all of Germany was. So it was a little bit difficult when all. For people that took in immigrants. Now we lived in a part of a building that actually had the fire department, the town's fire department in it and the school. And there was a small apartment behind the back of the building where we lived. A lot of our relatives, my grandparents, they lived with farmers and, you know, worked for the farmers then. It was, hmm– It was a hard time. You know, as kids, you don't think about it much. You know, you do your thing, you play and you run around. And whatever you do. Sometimes during school vacation in the fall, we would help in the fields when the potatoes were–hmm, hmm, hmm, (laughs) trying to think of the English word for it—for the potato harvest. You know, a lot of the kids, even though you were young, you went out into the fields and you helped with that. All our school vacations were geared toward that. We didn't have like the whole summer. We would have a week or two here and there, usually one in the summer, and then in the spring when the planting took place, and then in the fall when it was harvest time, because the area was a farming area. You know, that's about all I can tell you. The usual thing that children do. We immigrated in April of 1962 right over Easter. We left on Good Friday, a little bit on the rough side because these were not luxury liners. They were for troops. They were armed [00:06:49][inaudible] [0.0s] ships that were left from the war that were used then for immigration. I managed to get myself with the mumps the night before we docked and had to be left in New York and quarantined in a hospital, which is kind of interesting for a ten year old because nobody– You know, I didn't speak the language and nobody else there did either speak mine. So it was a little bit of a communication difficulty. And then I got put on an airplane and flown to Cleveland where my parents and my sisters were, which was kind of my exciting part for ten year old. Finished school year here, you know, started school, elementary school. I think I started in the fourth grade and then, you know, went through high school. Got– Did a secretarial course, and I worked for a while for Sherwin-Williams, and then I got married. And that's about it.

Deborah Parcham [00:08:17] Do you remember why you came to Cleveland specifically?

Maria Huppert [00:08:22] Specifically to Cleveland? At that time, everybody had to have a sponsor for immigration that stated they would help provide you with work and also with a place to live. And we had a sponsor through the Lutheran Church, and that's why we came here. We lived for a while with our family that also belonged to the church that sponsored us, and, until my parents, you know, got on their feet a little bit with, and got a place to live. And I think it was a couple of months we lived with this family. And then after my parents started working and we found another apartment, we moved into that. We were there not too long. There was another German family living in that. It was like a dual, two apartments, on the west side, on the Near West Side. And after that, we moved into a different one. And then my parents, in 1953, they purchased a home, also on the Near West Side. Cleveland was the destination for a lot of the people that were born in the town that came from the same town where I was born. I can't tell you exactly why, but I do know that it had a lot to do with finding a sponsor and that would, you know, sponsor the family. It wasn't just– Being a kid, I can't really tell you too much. I know that immigration was more involved, you know, being as it was postwar. My dad had been in the German army like a lot of the ethnic Germans, he– They didn't actually have a choice. It was like you go or we'll shoot you. So it was always– It was a difficult time because they had to have a clear record, a military record, that they were not involved in any of the atrocities that went on, that there were not in any of the death camps or any of that. But again, as a child, I think two men in particular, whatever they did, they must have kind of done it as a group because my grandfather came here and there were my mother, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle. And then there were other people from, like I said, from the town where we came from. And again, in Germany, they pretty much all settled in the same area. So. You know, a lot of it was, again, that the church did a lot of sponsoring on the immigrants.

Deborah Parcham [00:12:26] Would you say that, like your connection to the Lutheran Church really shaped your experience in Cleveland, or was that more secondary?

Maria Huppert [00:12:37] No, I mean, the connection, we just– I think the Sunday after we landed, we went to the church. We attended church, and I'm still attending the same church. And this is 70 years later. So it was a strong connection. We were Transylvanian Saxons. We were strict Lutherans, so there was a country connection, too, with the Lutheran church.

Deborah Parcham [00:13:16] So would you say the Lutheran Church was very hands on and involved in like the process of helping immigrants and all that?

Maria Huppert [00:13:25] Yes. Yes. And when we came, yes.

Deborah Parcham [00:13:31] Interesting. Also, if you don't mind talking about it, you said when you first got to the United States, you had to be put into quarantine. Would you mind talking more about that, like that experience in a hospital where you didn't speak the language?

Maria Huppert [00:13:48] (laughs) Well, it was interesting, you know, because like I said, I spoke no English at all. My sister had had the mumps first but hers had kind of faded. But I only got them the night before we docked, and I looked like– (laughs) There was no way of hiding the fact that I had the mumps. So I went by ambulance to the hospital. They took me by ambulance. And of course they kept asking, you know, my language. And I would say. Deutsch, which is German, you know, the German word for German. And then this nurse came in and started to talk to me. And I'm like, What is she talking about? She was a Dutch nurse because I said, Deutsch. They thought it was Dutch, which was kind of interesting at that time. You know, in the fifties, not very many people spoke German as, not the way they do now, you know, or knew enough German to know what I was talking about. So I was kind of left on my own. I would just– After people left the room, I would get up and, you know, get water and do whatever because nobody understood what I was trying to tell them. (laughs) So it was a little annoying, but I did get ice cream, which was really nice. Again, you know, as a kid, you kind of take things easily. I was not a– I was not a scared kid. And now if it would have been my younger sister, she would never have gotten through that 'cause she wouldn't be away from my parents, even with at my grandparents who lived in another town. They always had to take her home in the evening because she wouldn't stay overnight with them. So, you know, it was about a week. And then I got on an airplane and the stewardess was in charge. And we flew into Cleveland at that time. My parents had already made connections, like I said, with the congregation of the church that we were attending. And the church that we attended was a German church. Actually, it was founded by a Transylvania minister. So a lot of the attendants, a lot of your congregation, was from that background, and I think that was one of the reasons they did sponsor the immigrants that came from Transylvania.

Deborah Parcham [00:17:01] That's really interesting.

Maria Huppert [00:17:03] Pardon me?

Deborah Parcham [00:17:04] I said, sorry, I just said that's really interesting.

Maria Huppert [00:17:07] Yeah, And we were not related to Dracula.

Deborah Parcham [00:17:13] (laughs) I wasn't gonna ask that but thank you!

Maria Huppert [00:17:15] When you said– I just remember years ago when somebody asked us and it was with my sister, they asked where we were from, and we said Transylvania. And the person understood Pennsylvania. And they said, Oh, Pennsylvania, what city? And we looked and then said, No, Transylvania. And they were just kind of shocked almost, you know. Oh, you mean where Dracula came from? You gotta admire the author that made that one up because it sure put the country on the map. But yeah, the congregation, like I said, we did have very close ties to that congregation because that's– The background of most of the congregation was the same as ours, except they were earlier immigrants, like in the twenties and thirties so they were pretty well settled. But in the fifties there was a big influx of ethnic Germans into this area. That's when the social clubs started up again. And the German social club that we belong to, my husband and I, started up again in the fifties, they had been a club in the teens, I think like 1917, 1918 and then in the twenties they kind of shut down. But in the fifties, with the big influx of young German ethnic immigrants, they started up again. Barbara that you talked to, and Erica, they belonged to the same group, and I've known them, oh, my gosh, 50 years? 50-some years. But yeah, it was a big– there was a big influx in the fifties because so much was destroyed in Europe and in Germany that there really– The job prospects and that were not that good. And for the families to start building up again, a lot of them chose to emigrate. So.

Deborah Parcham [00:20:01] Did your parents ever– I guess you said you didn't have a lot of memories of, like, your hometown, but did your parents ever tell you stories or anything?

Maria Huppert [00:20:13] Mmm, how do you mean? In what respect?

Deborah Parcham [00:20:17] Just, I mean, just about like. I guess kind of important cultural–

Maria Huppert [00:20:29] Well, the culture– The culture from Transylvania was always kept, and it is still kept now. We still have– There are still Saxons– The Saschenheim on Denison is still active. The cultural groups– There is still a cultural, it'd be called a [00:20:55][inaudible], [0.0s] that still wear the costumes. My mom had hers. I mean, they brought their costumes with them. I don't know if you know anything about the Saxon cultures. Our costumes, especially the men, they were the white shirts with the black embroidery. And then the same thing is on the women's aprons with white blouses and then jumpers. We, our town, ladies wore black or blue. It was different for different areas, but the culture was kept and we still have the group here, and there's a sizable one in Chicago. There's a lot of Saxon people in Canada. Windsor and Kitchener is where many of the people from my town settled. We did quite a bit back and forth because when you had a wedding, you know, you got invited and you went and the town itself, because the German people kind of, how do I want to say? They did not intermarry with Romanians or Hungarians. So they were kind of a closed community. I mean, almost everybody was related to somebody in one degree or another. So it's kind of interesting. (laughs} And you had better know when you talk to somebody, if she was– How they were related, you know, if they were a cousin or a second cousin or third cousin or whatever. So, yeah, the towns, those kind of areas are kept very close together. I don't know what else to tell you. I mean, we did always, you know, if there was, like I said, a wedding you invited– Some our weddings were anywhere from 300 to 400 people. We saw– My parents saw other friends that they grew up with and relatives, and like I said, most of us were here or then in Canada. And in Detroit. There were a number of people from our town in Detroit. German people would form clubs and societies. The– It's actually called the ATS, its Alliance of Transylvanian Saxons, which is a fraternity which is active, offers financial, financial things you know like annuities and savings, life insurance. And they also have club meetings and that kind of thing. So but no, that is not all ethnic Germans. I'm talking about now about the Transylvanian Saxons, which is what what I am, or was.

Deborah Parcham [00:24:55] I mean–

Maria Huppert [00:24:57] My husband, on the other hand, he came from Yugoslavia. He was a Donauschwab, which is also German ethnic, which is a big group, big population. They have a big clubhouse out here actually where I live. The German-American Cultural Center? Yeah. German ethnics tend to draw together. It was difficult when you came and you didn't know the language, but there were a lot of workplaces where there were other Germans, you know, so that made it easier for– Now me, you know, I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about my parents. I mean, I went to school here. When I finished, of course, it didn't matter where I worked. I knew the language. But for my parents, it was difficult. And for my grandparents, it was particularly difficult for them. To this day, I really don't even know if my grandparents spoke any English, to tell you the truth. Now I know my one grandfather did because he was here already in the '20s for a couple of years that he worked and he was in Cincinnati, and then he went back home. But my other parents, the grandparents, I don't think they ever spoke English. Again because they, the group drew together, the Germans drew together. So in some ways, you really didn't have to. They lived with my aunt and uncle and, you know, so it wasn't necessary for them to. My grandpa worked for a while, but it was for the German club, so it wasn't necessary to have to know the language. Of course, it would have been difficult for them because they were in the sixties when they came, you know. So it's not easy then. And I don't know what else to tell you. We– We always kept a close relationship with families. And again, like I said, and most of it centered around Sachsenheim and then the church.

Deborah Parcham [00:27:34] Well, I guess, how did you meet your husband?

Maria Huppert [00:27:37] At one of the German functions at the German Central, which is also a club type, um, that's– How familiar are you with Cleveland?

Deborah Parcham [00:27:49] I'm not as familiar as I'd like to be. I mean, I've been going to Cleveland State for a couple of years, but obviously, because–

Maria Huppert [00:27:59] Oh, so you're not from the area?

Deborah Parcham [00:28:00] Yeah. Yeah, I'm not.

Maria Huppert [00:28:02] Okay, So it wouldn't make much difference if I told you that the German Central is on York Road.

Deborah Parcham [00:28:09] I mean, it's still good to know. It's still important information. Anything, anything you want to talk about.

Maria Huppert [00:28:13] That was an association-type club, and it was one of those wonderful places where every Sunday there would be a dance and a band. And yes, the young people all went, you know. And that's kind of where you met each other and, yeah. So, you know, if you if you talk to any of them, they'll tell you we were just– A friend of mine that lives out here, we were just talking how at that time, you know, especially the girls, none of them had cars or drove. So if they wanted to go, they took a bus to what is now the community college, the Cuyahoga Community College, the campus, which is on, what is it, on Pleasant Valley and York. And then you walked from there to the Central. Unless you had, you know, unless you had a boyfriend that had a car, or you could find somebody, you know, and a group of friends that was willing to to drive and pick you up. But for the women, it wasn't that easy. But they were young. We were young and it didn't matter too much if you had to walk a ways. That was a big meeting place for most of the young immigrants, the German immigrants and like I said, it was every every Sunday they had a band. They had a soccer team where the guys played. And you really– That's how you got to know each other.

Deborah Parcham [00:30:18] And how often did you speak German once you got to Cleveland? And where did you use it?

Maria Huppert [00:30:25] How often did I what? I'm sorry?

Deborah Parcham [00:30:26] Sorry. How often did you speak German once you got to Cleveland?

Maria Huppert [00:30:30] I mean, I always spoke German. My parents, we– Actually we spoke a dialect, a German dialect at home, which was called Saxon, and otherwise we spoke the regular German. Most of us spoke German. I mean, we were, we were German. We spoke, a lot of young people that got together, we all spoke to him all the time. My children, my, my in-laws, they never spoke English with them when they were little. My son, as a matter of fact, when he started kindergarten, he knew very, very little English. They learned very quickly, though, once they started school. Even in those years when they were, let's see, like the early '70s, the Donauschwaben, they started a German school where you could take your children if you wanted them to learn to write and read. And they're still running a German school out at the– it's called Leanu Park. It's the German American Cultural Center. It's on Columbia Road. They still have the German school. And many of the, like my children's age, they went to the German kindergarten, they went to the German school. My husband and I, because, well, we spoke, also, (laughs) we spoke English and we spoke German. It just depended. Now, when my sisters, we were used to speaking English, although we would speak German to our friends only because that's how we learned. You know, when we came over, we had to talk to somebody because my parents only spoke the German at home. And so we fell into that habit because my younger sister, she went to nursing school at what was then the Cty Hospital, Metro had a nursing school, and she met her husband there. She speaks very little German anymore because she was not in that environment. Her husband is Oriental and they moved away already when she was 20, 22, 22. But she could always write, my mom. She could always write the German, although she lost the speaking. My children both speak German, my son a little better than my daughter. They also understand the dialect that we spoke, the Saxon dialect. It would always be interesting when they would bring a friend over and if the family was together because we would use the language. Well, you know, when we'd talk to whatever person we talked to, like with my parents, we spoke Saxon with my in-laws, German, and then somewhere in there with the English. And then their friends would always go, What did they say? What did they say? And my kids would go, Well, what do you mean, what did they say? Because they were so used to hearing it, that it hardly ever registered with them, you know, that, Hey, you're not talking English, so these kids can understand what they're saying. But I think it was good for my children or any of the other children of my friends my age, that did learn some and enough. And a great many of them were active in the club as part of is the Bavarian club. My kids joined when they were about six. My daughter started dancing and my son played accordion for for a while. And they will still– She will still come into town when she can when we have a club function. Yeah, it, you kind of, you kind of respected and honored your background, and that's how you met other young people, you know, for the same ethnic background or similar German backgrounds. Like I said, we're still friends that we made when we were still in our teens and we still associate and socialize together. And that's– Not too many people can say that, you know, that you've been friends for 16 years. Yeah. You know, I think the Germans, the ethnic Germans kept very close together, and they're the ones that built up the club and kept the social stuff going so. Don't know what else to tell you.

Deborah Parcham [00:36:47] I mean, all of that already is really interesting. Going back a little bit, what was– When you first got to Cleveland, what was it like attending school as an immigrant?

Maria Huppert [00:37:04] Truthfully, to start with, it was not very pleasant because the kids– It hadn't been that long since the war. And, you know, Germans were all Nazis, which of course was ridiculous because these kids wouldn't have known the difference between the Germans that were and the ethnic Germans that actually did not come from Germany. In those years, we were not considered German citizens. Ethnic Germans were only– Only received German citizenship, I want to say sometime in the '60s. You were a citizen of the country where you were located. Like I was actually technically a Romanian citizen. My husband was a Yugoslavian citizen because the German culture that he came from, the Batchka and the Banat that were German areas, were in Yugoslavia. Some of them were in Hungary and Romania. So you were actually a citizen considered a citizen of that country, although you were ethnic German. The kids only repeat what they hear. Now, just since elementary school, I think they started me in the third grade, but I had had all of that already way before, especially math and that, but it was a language issue. And once I had the language, I kind of moved up to where I should have been from my age anyway. But the kids had a habit of the name calling, you know, oh, you were a DP. I did not know what the letters DP stood for. But do you know what the letters stood for?

Deborah Parcham [00:39:24] No, I'm afraid not.

Maria Huppert [00:39:28] (laughs) It stood dor displaced persons.

Deborah Parcham [00:39:29] Oh, my goodness. I should have known that. (laughs)

Maria Huppert [00:39:34] It's actually immigrants. Well, yes and no, not necessarily an immigrant but a displaced person because we all lost our countries when the, during the war, you know, they all, well they were all overrun by the Russians. And we left. So you actually were considered a displaced person because, it was an obvious thing. But the kids heard it from their parents and they thought, you know, they'd run around and yell that you were a DP and a Nazi. And, you know, for a ten year old, that's a little bit rough. Until you actually figure it out, what they're, you know, what they thought they were doing. And they were name calling. A year or two, by the time I got to junior high, which I would have been, what, 13, there were a number of German kids in my class and that, and we kind of sit together for lunch in the high school cafeteria. And that way and I still know those girls and I had lunch with when I was in high school, at least one of them. Oh, two of them. One, one has passed away. But it was that type of, you do it together. You know, you have the background and you kind of pull together because it was a little bit difficult, you know, to sort of. You got through it. Um, I think it's unfortunate, and I know it's still done and it still is, that parents talk in a derogatory way about other nationalities and their kids pick that up. I mean, they're kids. You know, so they kind of use it for name calling and what have you. But it got better by the '60s, you know, it had already really slowed down a lot. And by that time, there were other stuff. All right. Like getting married. (laughs) So, you know, all of us. So I mean, I enjoyed going to school. Like I said, there were a lot of other German kids and we kind of shared and you like to have people with the same background, you know, so you can kind of relate a little bit better. And I don't know what else to tell you. It's a long way from– I'm almost 80 now, so it's a long way from being a kid.

Deborah Parcham [00:42:52] Have you ever been back to Germany or your hometown?

Maria Huppert [00:42:56] No, I have not been. I know that I have didn't have the opportunity. My sister and I had planned and then my husband fell and broke a bunch of ribs and then I couldn't go. And then my older sister, she became ill. And we never did go. It was not back in and not back in Romania, in Transylvania. But I had been to Germany. I had my mother's sister lived in northern Germany. Her husband was a German, but not, you know, not an ethnic– Do you know the difference when I'm saying a German or an ethnic German?

Deborah Parcham [00:43:45] Um. Sort of. Again, stuff I should know more about. Feel free to talk about it more. (laughs)

Maria Huppert [00:43:52] When I'm referring and saying a German, that's someone who was born in Germany and was a German citizen. Ethnic Germans were from other countries where there were German settlements and at that time were not considered German citizens. That changed in the '60s when all ethnic Germans were granted German citizenship. That's– You're different. Ethnic Germans were not born in Germany itself. They were all colonized areas of Europe, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia. Oh, what's the one I can think of? Not Estonia, but, hmm, it won't come to me right now. But they were all settlements that were done in the 1600s. They were land grants that were given to different German people in Germany themselves who wanted to colonize and have their own land. Kind of like the British (laughs), you know, when they settled in different areas. So there's the difference when you say a German and an ethnic German. Make it a little clearer?

Deborah Parcham [00:45:34] Yeah. Thank you.

Maria Huppert [00:45:37] You know, don't don't consider it, and most people really, really unless they've really read it in the history books and even thought about it, they really don't know. You know, and again, because these people colonized, they kind of formed the little towns and the little areas, and they stuck together. Because they're pretty much had to. I don't know what else to tell you.

Deborah Parcham [00:46:10] I mean, that was a lot. It was all really interesting. Thank you. Before we wrap this up, is there any last thing you'd like to talk about? Just anything about your experience as an immigrant?

Maria Huppert [00:46:27] Well. I did. I mean, I am a naturalized citizen like I did as soon as I was 18, which was the age you have to be. Uh, you know, kind of– And I have a foot in both camps. I mean, I do belong to German clubs and, uh, those activities, but I also obviously do the English. I had– You have to, you know, you don't you don't shut yourself off. I worked for Sherwin-Williams for a while, and when that happened, I got married and had my two kids. And then after the kids were in their early oh, my son was 14. I worked in the Cleveland Stadium in the stadium in the restaurant for 15 years, which was interesting. You know, you've met a lot of different people. And when they had a Browns game, (laughs) what a madhouse down there. And I guess it still is even if it's a different stadium now. If you're not from the area you're not familiar with that, you know, that they had– There was one stadium for both the teams, which is where the new Browns Stadium is now, but the old one was torn down and the new one built. I don't know what else to tell you. I, I went to nursing school when I was in my fifties and worked for ten years as a nurse. My husband passed away. It's going on five years now. We'd been married for 54 years. And like I said, he was also a German background. I don't know what else would be interesting to you.

Deborah Parcham [00:48:53] I mean, that was all really interesting. (laughs) Thank you so much.

Maria Huppert [00:48:57] You know, you build a life and you you work with it. I have my daughter and my son. My son doesn't have any children. My daughter has two, and the younger one just finished his training with the Navy, the Air Corps, the flying part of the Navy. The air part of the Navy. He just finished. And now he's an officer, a navigation officer. So we're very proud of him. My– That's about it. I don't know what else to tell you. I mean, we've become very much part of America. But we still keep our background and our traditions. I think that part is not easy to understand for your average American. But there are many, many other ethnic groups that, you know, in this country that stay very strong with their ethnicity. And I think it's good. I know some people don't like it, but I think it's good. This is the background you come from. This is, you know, what your ancestors were and it's what you are. You know, you can be a 100% American, but you can still honor your ethnic background. So. That's how we live. And we still have our

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